Notes

Note 1 As part of her undergraduate dissertation in the Centre for Language & Communication Research at Cardiff University, Alex Brown collected the data for this paper along with data for her dissertation (see Brown, 2002). Alex spent a lot of time transcribing the text-messages used here and was also responsible for undertaking some initial coding of the text-messages. We presented the other findings of Alex's dissertation at ICLASP8 (Hong Kong, July 2002). An earlier version of the current paper was also presented at the annual conference of the British Association of Applied Linguists (Cardiff, September 2002). [Return to text]

Note 2 Headline quote from BBC News (2000). Text messaging grows up. [Return to text]

Note 3 See also Agence France-Presse. 2002. Wireless net unpopular, text messaging is king. [Return to text]

Note 4 In Germany, one of Western Europe's greatest SMS-using countries, young people are similarly cast as the 'handy generation' (Rössler & Höflich, 2002:10), 'handy' being the colloquial German word for a mobile phone. [Return to text]

Note 5 'Answers peppered with soap opera phrases and written entirely in text message shorthand are posing new challenges for this year's GCSE markers …fears have been expressed that the texting phenomenon could undermine children's grammar.' (Henry, 2002). [Return to text]

Note 6 An excellent bibliography of academic writing about mobile telephony and text-messaging is made available online by Nalini Kotamraju (University of California at Berkeley, USA) and Nina Wakeford (University of Surrey, UK). [Return to text]

Note 7 We are grateful to Susan Herring for bringing to our attention the interesting doctoral research of Hård af Segerstad (Göteborg University in Sweden) in which he has examined four modes of computer-mediated communication including the language of text-messaging. (Please see his website for more detail and information about forthcoming publications arising from this work.) [Return to text]

Note 8 Brought to our notice subsequently, Androutsopoulos's (2000) typology details most of the same features, although labels them differently. [Return to text]

Note 9 This was by no means the only such example of participants having sent or received messages during lectures - although hopefully none given by author Thurlow! [Return to text]

Note 10 This text-poem was awarded top prize in a well-publicised, national competition run by The Guardian newspaper in 2001. [Return to text]

Note 11 The facility for screening calls is also commonly afforded by answering machines. [Return to text]

Note 12 Counter-claims are often made regarding the concomitant loss of control over one's accessibility and the blurring of the boundaries between public and private. As Katz & Aakhus (2002) comment, 'perpetual contact' has both its negative and positive side. [Return to text]

Note 13 In the context of mobile phones and text-messaging, Rössler & Höflich (2002) characterize this same process as 'intramedia convergence'. [Return to text]

Note 14 In their paper on the uses and gratifications of mobile phones, Leung & Wei (2000) discuss how mobile phones are 'more than just talk on the move'. [Return to text]

Note 15 This obvious link between text-messages and similar discourse practices is picked up nicely in a major advertising campaign for Nokia phones (see Image 2 - PDF download). Also, in discussing the way chain messages may gifted, Ling & Yttri (2002:159) characterise messaging as 'an updated version of passing notes'; this would seem to be the case for their linguistic form as well. [Return to text]

Note 16 In October 2002, the question of personal text-messaging style became a matter of crucial forensic evidence in the murder of a young teenager by her uncle who had sent forged messages on her phone (see BBC Online, October 9). [Return to text]

Note 17 M37 (Welsh): Good morning moz.Sorry for waking you up!Are y (~) coming to the medieval Europe lecture at 2?If yes, d'ya wanna meet in front of the law building at 1:50?Niaxxx; M38 (Welsh): Ello darling.Love you lds; M39(German): Are you ok?.[Return to text]